How Would You React If He Showed Up to Take Your Daughter Out Wearing This?

While I was running around the front part of Cobo Hall trying to get photos of likely competitors for the Detroit Autorama’s famed Ridler Award for the best new custom car in America, a young couple walked past me. They both looked to be about 20 years old. While I don’t know what she drives, it was pretty obvious from the screenprinted hoodie he was wearing that he drives some kind of Powerstroke diesel powered Ford pickup truck.

While Ford logos at the Autorama are hardly remarkable, the slogan on the back of the sweatshirt read, “Every time she rides, I give her the Powerstroke.” Now I like risque humor as much, or even more, than the next guy or gal and I have to admit that while “ride” is a bit cliched, “Powerstroke” is a pretty decent indecent pun. I can recite many of Lenny Bruce’s routines verbatim from memory, so it’s not that I’m easily offended by humor with a sexual bent, but I reacted almost viscerally to the young man’s sweatshirt. Maybe it’s because of the incident this week with former major league pitcher Curt Schilling having to deal with vile and despicable Twitter comments about his teenage daughter. I’ve been in a similar situation with one of my children. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting old and yearn for when there was just a little more propriety in public. Whatever the reason, I couldn’t help but wonder what her parents would say if he wore that hoodie while picking her up for a date. I think I’d feel a little like a father in the early 1960s seeing her date pull up in a Nash or Rambler.

I think the gentleman, and I use the word broadly, bought his shirt off of the Etsy site, where I found the photo above, but I can choose to where I decide to link to and posting the image is as far as I’m going today to contribute to our era’s public crudity. If you want one to match your own Powerstroke Ford, or female companion, you’ll just have to search like I did for the photo.

Obviously, the young lady was cool with her male companion describing their sex life to the general public, so maybe it’s none of my business, but that’s a little like saying that a possibly offensive bumper sticker or a billboard is none of your business. If you are going to literally wear your sentiments on your sleeve (or back), be prepared to get a comment or two. As I happened to come across the pair again, I tapped him on the shoulder and asked, “And what are you going to do when she wants more displacement?”

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can get a parallax view at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS